


Death Of Echo

by hirusen



Series: The Tale Of Fireteam Praetor [8]
Category: Destiny (Video Games)
Genre: Bargaining, Crying, Dead Ghosts (Destiny), Denial, During Season Of Arrivals (Destiny), Fireteam As Family (Destiny), Fireteam Lore, Grief/Mourning, Guardian Lore, Heavy Angst, Original Character Death(s), The Cradle (Destiny)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-28
Updated: 2020-08-28
Packaged: 2021-03-07 03:00:34
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,799
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26149843
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hirusen/pseuds/hirusen
Summary: So...if there was ever going to be a Destiny 3, I was going to have it so that Liam, the Hunter, was the only surviving member of his fireteam. But with what's in the future for D2, it felt like it was the right time to do this.
Series: The Tale Of Fireteam Praetor [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1896535
Kudos: 1





	Death Of Echo

They didn't know it was happening until Echo just suddenly collapsed.

They were at the Cradle, Eris translating the most recent message from the Darkness when Liam heard a noise to his right. Echo was on one knee, his gun clattering to the ground the noise Liam hear, and his hands were griping the sides of his head. The Exo let out a sudden, pained scream and then he was face first on the ground. "ECHO!" He screamed, rushing to grab the Titan by his pauldrons, shifting him so he now laid on his back, his head supported in Liam's lap. "Echo!" Nis exclaimed, taking one of the Exo's hands and frowning when she couldn't feel his Light.

"What's happening? What's happening to him?" Liam asked Nis, but she shook her head. "I...I, I-I don't know. I don't know!" What? How could Nis not...

And then he felt it.

The Darkness. Crawling inside of Echo like parasitic spiders. Seeming to already have devoured his Light.

"GET OUT OF HIM!!!" Liam's scream caused both Eris and Nis to flinch. Liam's Hive runes started to glow then, bright enough to be seen even through his armor, the Seed of Silver Wings seeming to resonate with them. _"We did not mean for this to happen."_ "Didn't mean for it to happen?!" Nis glanced around confused when Liam responded, apparently not hearing the Darkness speaking. _Decided to leave Aiden alone did they?_ "Liam..?" Nis asked, but he didn't respond.

 _"We did not know his programming was like this..."_ "Echo's programming? What do you mean?" "Careful, friend." Eris warned, sensing the Darkness even stronger than normal, but not hearing what Liam was. "I-I..." Echo started, static in his voice before he started to cough for a moment, raising his free hand to quiet anything his fireteam might say. "I-I...wasn't meant to be a Guardian." "...Like...you regret this life?" Nis asked but Echo shook his head. "I...wasn't meant to have the Light..." "...At all."

Liam quickly stated, a strange understanding washing over him. He remembers back all those years ago when he and Echo first met back in the Cosmodrome; he was pretty banged up, almost like the Light wasn't taking too well. "Is..." Liam locked his eyes with Echo's blue optics. "Are those Exo files I found on Mars...were those, your files?" "I...I-I think so..!" Another coughing fit. Anxiety was building in Liam pretty fast; this is too similar to how he lost Cayde. "Is there anything you can do to help him?" "LIAM?!" Nis and Eris shouted at him, but he didn't care.

He wasn't going to lose a member of his family again; not without trying **something** at least. _"...To do so, would be to take him away from you twice."_ Liam felt his heart break into a million pieces.

"No...No, there's...there's no way this is--" Eris sucked in a breath when a figure suddenly appeared from the shadows, clearly the Darkness taking some kind of form as it walked closer to Liam. Nis hissed in a breath through her teeth as well, scooting back a few paces before the figure reached out and placed a hand on Liam's shoulder. The Hunter quickly lashed out, the blades that were part of his Crucible armor snapping back into the shadow figure, it vanishing into smoke quickly after being struck. "No! NO! This isn't happening! It can't be! Not again! Not--"

Liam's words of angry denial were choked away when Echo's hand cupped his cheek, the man curling over the Exo as he broke down, heart-wrenching sobs escaping him. Nis felt as tears washed down her cheeks as well at the sight. "No..." She was more in disbelief than denial, though she could barely understand and accept what was happening. Echo's Ghost, Cikis (who took the name in remembrance of the Vex Hydra who saved him from death), appeared as the last of his Light flickered then vanished, the shell of the now dead Ghost dropping to the ground with a weak clink.

"Cikis...wasn't suppose to...bring me back..." "What?" Nis asked, the question barely being heard over Liam's wails of pain. "My programming...it was faulty, could barely work; something to do with how I was created, I think." Another coughing fit escaped Echo and Liam held him closer. "IS THERE NOTHING YOU CAN DO FOR HIM!?" He bellowed, the question echoing off the branches of the Tree of Silver Wings, hallow and unanswered.

"The Light wasn't even suppose to work. Cikis wasn't suppose to be able to revive me." "But...he did." Echo nodded, the hand on Liam's cheek now moving up to the top of his head, a small puddle of tears now collecting on his chassis thanks to a small gap in his armor, but he didn't care. "It didn't take right away, as you know; I was pretty banged up when Liam found me out in the Cosmodrome and in the Tower." That's right, Echo always did have some trouble recovering after combat; he'd be fine in the end, but he'd always take longer to patch up than Liam or Nis did. It was why he didn't mind helping the Lightless and Tower staff if he was injured; it gave his body time to heal, to repair itself.

"...So what's happening?" Liam sucked in a shaky breath and swallowed his cries for a moment. "T-The Darkness..." "... _What?_ " Nis growled, anger now flaring in her. "It's been slowly settling into our Light... You two didn't notice it because it was just adjusting to how your Light moved within you; I still don't understand what happened. What did you do to him?" _"We wanted to help him. The Light was not what he was meant to wield to survive, but..."_ The Darkness trailed off, almost like it was trying to find the right words.

Aiden popped up then, quickly scanning Echo. "The Darkness tried to intermingle with his Light, but doing so seemed to have shut down his programming." _"...Your little Light is correct."_ The Darkness sounded...sad about that. Almost, like it was disappointed in itself. _"We did not mean to do so. We know how much he meant to you. We knew how much stronger he would have been with our gift..."_ But their gift didn't save him.

Their gift killed him.

"And you want us to trust you? After this?!" "Don't...blame the Darkness, Liam." Echo's words stunned both members of his fireteam as well as Eris. "I...I accepted their gift, but my programming couldn't handle it." "Why?" Echo chuckled at Liam's question. "Ever the Warlock mind, huh?" A sad smile washed onto his friend's lips, tear stains shining in the low light. "To do so, the Darkness had to suppress my Light, but...that was the only thing--by some miracle--keeping me alive." "But, you can still--" Echo shook his head before the rest of those words left Liam's mouth. "The Echo that I am, that you and Nis love, would have to die and afterward, I wouldn't be the same man ever again." Because he would've been reset; which meant any memories he had from before would be erased.

The Darkness was right. It would have to kill Echo twice in order to save him.

"But, hey. I...I had a damn good run, didn't I?" There was more static in his voice now. "You found me in the Cosmodrome, we found and saved Nis on the Moon, we traveled to so many worlds; we heard the tale of you destroying the heart in the Black Garden; we killed Atheon together with the help of Corion, Jasen, and Zarall; we hunted down the Hive, and killed Omnigul and Crota; we served the Awoken Queen and took down the House of Wolves; we fought and killed Oryx; we took out SIVA and Aksis, and Nis and I watched on with pride as you became an Iron Lord." Echo went into another coughing fit, Nis taking one of his hands now, tears running down her face as well. "We survived the Red War, looking on with pride and joy as you were named the Traveler's Chosen; we helped you take out Calus in the Leviathan; we heard of your success in reviving Sagira, locating Osiris, and destroying Panoptes; as you helped Ana and Rasputin take down Nokris and Xol--which really? Three Hive gods? Could you save some for us?"

Liam and Nis couldn't help their laughter, surprised by it actually. "...We were there for you when we lost Cayde." Silence deafened the area for a moment. "And we let you go kill the Scorn Barons alone, hunt down Uldren with Petra, and return. As you took up the name of Dredgen Gale, as we helped the Dreaming City after we hunted down Riven; as you aided the Black Armory and killed Insurrection Prime, as you became a force to be reckoned with in Gambit Prime and became connected to the Nine and the Emissary, as you became a Shadow of Humanity, of us Guardians, and reclaimed the Crown of Sorrow from Gahlran; as we helped Eris on the Moon and killed the Undying Mind so many times it finally died, as you saved Saint-14 from a fate Osiris could not, as we helped Rasputin create his weapons and took down the Almighty."

And now here they were, the enemy at their doorstep and Echo was going to die before they even saw the end of this. "We've been through so much together and...to be honest? I wouldn't trade those memories for anything in the system." "...Not...Not even to see this to the end?" Echo chuckled softly, weakly; the light in his optics starting to dim. "Why would I? I know you'll see this until the end." Liam shook his head, honestly unsure if he could now; to lose another person he loved so dearly and cared for so much, he...

"Mind of a Warlock, strength of a Titan, instincts of a Hunter." Echo's words snapped him out of the start of a rather dangerous downward spiral. "That is who you are, Liam. You are Crota's Bane. You are the Kingslayer. You, are the Traveler's Chosen. You have the one talent of making the impossible possible, and you do it time and time again." Echo smiled warmly to his friends. "If there's anyone who can see what we're facing to the end, it's you, Liam Deklon." "...I love you, brother." "I love you too. Take care of each other, yeah?" They both nodded and then, slowly, painfully slowly, the light faded from Echo's eyes, and his last breath escaped him.

Liam's scream of grief and Nis's mournful cry would have made the Hive Deathsingers weep.

**Author's Note:**

> So...if there was ever going to be a Destiny 3, I was going to have it so that Liam, the Hunter, was the only surviving member of his fireteam. But with what's in the future for D2, it felt like it was the right time to do this.


End file.
